Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-07-22

| upward toward tne WIDER llIe ana larger
liberty, or perchance downward into the
| depths of an eternal sleep
Poor dark eyed, deep hearted jess This
was the fruition of her love and this her
bridal bed
1t was done. She had gone taking with
her the secret of her self sacrifice and crime,
and the night winds moaning amid the rocks
sang their requiem over her Here sho first
had learned her love- and here she closed it,
hook
She might have bee: a great and good
woman. She might even have been happy
woman. But fate had ordained it otherwise.
| Women such a, she are rarely happy in the
| world 1t is not well to stake all ones for
| tuno on a throw and lack the craft to load the
! dice Well her troubles are done with
| Think gently of her. and let her pass in
! iWacc.
The hours grew Oh toward the morning,
| but John. the dead face ot the woman he had
| loved still pl,owcd ON ms breast neither
dreamed nor woke. There was a strange and
! dreadful irony in the situation, and one which
som,tmrs finds counterpart in our waking
| life, but still tire man slept and the dead
woman lay till The night turned into the
morning and the world woke up rs usual.
! The sunheams >lii into the cave and played
| iudlTerently upon the ashcn face and tang led
| Curls and on the broad chest of the living
man whcreon they rested. An old baboon
! pcepcd round the rocky edge and manifes' ed
no surprise, only indignation, at the intrusion
| of humanity, dead or alive, into his dOmn-
| ions Yes the world woke up as usual, and
| rocked not and troubled not because jess was
| dead
1t was 50 accustomed to such sights
And at last John woke UP. too He
stretched his arms and yawned and then for
the first time became aware of the weight
upon his breast. lie glanced down and saw
dlmlv at tirst--thon more clearly
There are some things into which it is
wisest not to pry, and one of them is the first
agony of a strong mans grief
Happy was it for him that his brain did
not give way in that first lonely hour Of bot
UomleSs despair. But he lived through it, as
We do live through such things, and was sane
and sound after it, though it left its mark
upon his life.
Two hours later a gaunt, haggard figure
came stumbling down the hillside toward the
site of Mooifontein, bearing something in his
arms The whole place was in commotion.
Here and there were knots of Beers talking
e1citedly, who, when they saw the man COM
ing hurried up to see who it was and what he
carried. But when they knew they fell back
awed and without a word, and he too,
passed through them without word For
moment he hesitated, realizing that the house
was burned down, and then turned into the
wagon Shed and laid his burden down upon the
saw bench on which Frank Muller had sat as
judge upon the previous day.
Then at last he spoke in hoarse voice,
"Where is the old man. One of them pointed
to tie door of the little room.
open it, he said, so ferccy that they
again fell back and obcycd him without a
word.
"Johnl Johnl' cried Slas Croft THANK
God you have come back to us from the
dead!' and, trembling with joy and surprise,
he would have fallen upon his neck
"Hu,hn he answered: II have brought the
dead with me-"
And he led him to where she lay.
During the day the Beers all went and left
them alone. Now that Frank Muller was
dead there was no thought among them of
carrying out the sentence upon their old
neighbor. Besides, there was NO warrant for
the execution, even had they desired so to do,
for their commandant had died leaving it I'M
signed. So they held n sort of informal in
quest upon their leaders body, and then
buried HIM in the little graveyard that was
planted with the four red gums, one at each
corner, and walled in on the hillside at the
back of where the house had stood Rather
than he at the pains of following out another
they buried him in the very grave that lie
had caused to be dug to receive the body of
Silas Croft.
Who had murdered Frank Muller was and
remains Il mystery among them to this LAY
The knife was identified 10y the natrc+ ahout
the farm as belonging to the llott"utot
Jamie, and a Hottentot was seen ,'l-riuE
from the place of the deed and hunted for
some way, but could not he caught or heard
of again. Therefore many of them arc of the
opinion that he is the guilty man. Others.
again, believes that the crime rests upon the
shoulders of the villainous one eyed kaflir.
Hendrix, his own servant, who had also mys-
terously vanished. But as they have never
found either Of them, and are not likely to,
the point remains a moot one. Nor indeed,
did they take any great pains to hunt for
them. Frank Muller was not n popular char
acter, and the fact of a man coming to mys-
terious end does not produce any great sensa-
ton among a rough people and in rough
times
On the following day old Slas Croft, Bes-
sic and John Mel also buried their dead in the
little graveyard on the hillside, and there she
lies, some ten feet of earth only between her
and the man ON whom she was the instru-
ment Of vengeance. But they never knew
that, or even guessed it. They never even
knew that she had been near Mooifonten on
that awful night. Nobody knew it except
Jantio, and Jantjo haunted by the football of
the pursuing RoerS, was gone from the ken of
the white man far into the wilds of Central
Africa.
"John," said the old man, when they had
filed in the grave, this is no country for
Englishmen. Let us go home to England"
John bowed his head in assent Fortunately
the means were not wanting, although they
Were practically ruined, for the q ,01O he had
paid to Silas for a third interest in the farm
still lay, together with another G250, in the
Standard bank at Newcastle, in Natal
And so in due course they went.
And now what moro is there to tel' Jess
to those who read what has been written as
it is meant to be read, was the soul of it all,
and jess is dead. 1t is useless to set a lfeless
Al. Al, II